Question meme

[netmouse]

"The problem with Livejournal is that we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. Hence, I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you."


I don't think I posted this when it came around a while ago, but I have some new friends recently, so maybe this will be helpful. please have at. I will make a diligent attempt to answer all questions.

Comments

[plasmonicgrid.livejournal.com]

Are you right handed or left?

[atdt1991.livejournal.com]

Oh, the things I think I should know about you! *wink wink*

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

*nudge nudge*

Indeed!

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I am right handed.

I was probably naturally ambidextrous as far as my hands go but I am very right-eye dominant and I initially learned to write, draw and throw a ball with my right hand. I can throw a ball or a frisbee decently with either hand since I spent some time training the left hand, and I can write with either hand, but my left hand writes like a fourth-grader. Quick experimentation just now indicates my left hand can probably draw better than people who are not trained how to draw but my right hand has muscle memory and training it does not. Years of predominantly typing have dramatically reduced the advantage in pen-holding callouses that my right hand has, however, compared to when I was in high school. Also, the injury to my right shoulder of four years ago altered a lot of the habit of reaching for doors and heavy things with my right hand. Which was interesting.

But when it comes to requiring a fast twitch or for the hand to do something autonomous while the brain is distracted, for anything other than driving the car, I'm right-handed.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"The problem with Livejournal is that we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other."

It's odd, but when I think of the problems with LiveJournal, that doesn't even make the top ten.

B

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Hee. So what do you think are the top ten?

[vylar-kaftan.livejournal.com]

How do you feel about your Grinnell experience, retrospectively? Positive, negative, mixed, and in what ways?

Also, if I can ask, what are your current spiritual practices?

[knightlygoddess.livejournal.com]

What did you go to college for, and what is your degree in? I honestly have no idea, and while it should seem obvious, assumptions tend to make fools of us all. :)

[andrewfeland.livejournal.com]

What do you do for a living? How did you end up doing it?

[grimfaire.livejournal.com]

Cake or Death?

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Cake please.

preferably a nice carrot cake without too much frosting.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I went to college for to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It didn't work. ;)

I also went to meet other like-minded people and be intellectually stimulated. That, I got.

My BA from Grinnell College is in history. I changed my major my senior year. Discussion of that here (http://www.netmouse.com/me/portfolio/major.html). I have a Master's of Applied Science (roughly an MS) from the University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering. That degree essentially boils down to "How to approach and perhaps solve complex problems that involve small numbers of humans and machines."

(small number being key in that these are not problems big enough to make statistical models of the human populations involved in them.)


If you go through the rest of my portfolio (http://www.netmouse.com/me/portfolio/), you can actually see all the classes I've taken, my grade point averages, etc. I wear my education on my sleeve. :)

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

How do I feel about it... hmm... it was four years. Four very different years. It started out more positively than it ended, I think. In between I had test anxiety for the first time (in physics - Mechanics), I came out as bi, I made a lot of good friendships, had moments of drama when it seemed my friends hated me or only lusted after me, didn't care, etc, had terrific insightful breakthroughs that changed who I was as a person, had a bad relationship that went on way too long and broke me in ways I am even still now discovering and trying to repair, learned how to program computers and more about how to make magic in theater and in rl, made various compromise decisions I might have made differently now if I had the chance, danced with the mad power of the May King in my veins, and graduated.

In other words, it was college.

I don't know if I have ever had spiritual practices. I was raised agnostic, and I remain to a certain extent agnostic. I believe that all that groks is god, but that doesn't seem "spiritual" to me. It's there, like physics. very much exactly like physics. I started speaking to the trees when I was a kid, and I still do that sometimes, especially when I need some guidance from someone vastly older than me. Mostly, I'm unanchored and a little lost. Every so often the universe thrills me and I worship all of it. When I pray, I pray to Diana if I want to put a face on god. Sometimes the wind tickles my palms and I am reminded I have power, or I focus on a stone to settle and find peace. Pretty random.

yours?

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I am a Human Factors Engineer at Klein Associates, which is a small division of a large company called Applied Research Associates. Klein does Decision-making research and helps develop workshops, training, control systems, workspaces, and other procedures or artifacts (systems) that are well-informed by an understanding of how people make decisions, make sense of their world, and otherwise do what they do.

In 2007 I wrote up what I do (http://netmouse.livejournal.com/366066.html) while I was working at Soar Technology, and what I do right now is very similar. I work in the cognitive systems engineering group at Klein.

[andrewfeland.livejournal.com]

And hey, there I am, commenting in 2007 about how amazingly cool that was. I'll have to research my own comment history before thinking of a question next time.

For the record, still amazingly cool. However, while this answers the "what", it doesn't answer the "how". How'd you get from history to cognitive theory, applied control systems, and human-robot interaction?